Non-Profits, No More

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I’ve always been the non-profit girl.

Always. In high school, I was saving my spare change to buy a FEED bag. I was spending birthday money on TWLOHA shirts, Abort73 gear, Invisible Children campaigns. In college, I interned for countless orgs – local and international. For some reason, social injustices have always seemed to cut me just a little bit deeper than most people. I don’t care more than other people – I think everyone, on some level, cares about the broken state of our world – but I think I feel it a little more. I’ve always felt a bigger need to go, to do, to act. I’m the girl at the party, in the corner, talking about the international aid world and development problems in sub-Saharan Africa. Or the person on Facebook who’s constantly sharing feminist news clips and third world statistics. In college, I found myself putting my plans of law school on the back burner (as I discovered my passionate argumentative skills had other potential uses – advocacy). I found myself spending all my free time with a group of high school girls. I found myself on a plane to Malawi, three years in a row. The non-profit girl.

And when I moved back from Malawi? I started the American office of an Ugandan nonprofit. Which I’ve been overseeing, by myself, for the past year. When I came home, I got so many “This is perfect for you!”s, “Of course you found a job like this”es, and “I can’t imagine you doing anything else!”s. Because I was Krysti, the non-profit girl. I always have been. Except, now I’m not. Read More

Dressember 27: He is Faithful

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For the month of December – in honor of Dressember – I’ll be blogging everyday! Thoughts on anything from fighting for justice to feminism, from dresses I’m wearing to books I’m reading, and everything in between.

There’s only a few days left in 2015, and I’m sitting here wondering where the year has gone. It seems like just yesterday I was celebrating Christmas in Malawi. It seems like only a few days ago I was getting off the plane in San Diego, excitedly welcomed home by so many faces I had missed. Was it really 10 whole months ago I started working for IGF? Eish.

As I realized next week is a new year – next. week! – I also realized I have no idea what 2016 holds for me. Sure, a few weddings I’ll be attending. A few big events I know about. But the the details, the in between? I have no idea. I realized I’m pretty much exactly where I was at this time last year: looking out on 2015 with excitement and hesitancy, exhilarated at the thought of all the freedom it held …and terrified at the thought of freedom it held.

But then I thought back on all that 2015 held for me. So much I didn’t see coming, so much I couldn’t have even imagined. Some good, some bad. But through it all, God was with me. Seasons I thought I would never survive came to a close, problems I thought could never be solved are gone, questions I thought would never be figured out are now answered. In everything, God surpassed my expectations. He never left my side, even on the days where I mistakenly thought He had.

He has been faithful in every promise. Today I realized (…or, re-realized) that He will continue to be faithful. Yesterday, today, and forever. This next year might be a mystery, there may be a lot to uncover in the months ahead and a lot of decisions to be made, but I don’t have to do that alone. I don’t have to doubt His goodness or His mercies, because He promises it’s unfailing and they are new every morning. I don’t know what 2016 will hold, but I know Who holds me.